David Meerman Scott, a well-known marketing strategist, coined the term "newsjacking," which he describes as "the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business." The concept makes sense, and we all know that a great way to gain relevance online is by leveraging hot topics and news items that are beginning to trend-but it's a competitive, and fast-moving, field. How do content marketers stay on top of the relevant trends and news in their industries to ensure they're curating and communicating fresh, engaging content?

Tacit Unveils illumio 2.0

Tacit Software Inc. has announced the availability of illumio 2.0, a web service and free download for online and enterprise groups for a social networking experience. illumio includes an intelligent matching process that privately creates new connections between people, designed to give them an opportunity to explore shared interests, exchange information, or collaborate.

With illumio 2.0, anyone can visit www.illumio.com, create an illumio group, and invite others to join. Basic Groups are free to set up, making it possible for anyone to create a collaborative community around a specific topic or interest. Premium Groups are designed for membership organizations or businesses that want a collaborative social network solution that is private and secure. Premium groups are available on a subscription basis, with free trials available at the website; and Corporate Subscription and Partnering Agreements are available for large-scale deployments of multiple illumio groups throughout an organization or application of illumio to commercial sites.

All types of illumio groups include support for illumio’s capabilities, such as: Targeted Question and Answer Exchanges, where group members can request expertise, ask a question, request a contact, or search for a file. Those who appear to be the most qualified to respond are automatically and privately alerted by illumio and given the first chance to do so. If they ignore the request, others get the chance. Matching takes place on each user’s PC where it is totally private to that user; and Personalized Group News and Updates, where group leaders can create and maintain a bundle of information feeds (including their own or third-party RSS feeds, Atom feeds, and email distribution lists) and have each member be automatically alerted when items arrive that match their interests. illumio also detects whether other people in a member’s private social network are likely to be interested in the item (even if they do not have illumio) and suggests where to send a copy of the item. Groups in illumio can be linked to an existing web or intranet site by free illumio widgets which can be dropped onto any web page to add collaborative social networking for visitors. illumio is a hosted service.